@macoland: I think I know that consumer reports is a paid service but any more info on this? The wife keeps wanting to get an air purifier due to cats in the house but I think they are a waste of money. She thinks it will keep cat hair from accumulating around the house but (while I'm no expert) I think there's no chance. Would be nice to have something to back me up before we really discuss it. She will usually acknowledge my evidence if it is scientifically backed.

This uses UV light to kill germ like commercial kitchens use and a filter to trap dust, it's going to do little for pet hair which is heavy in comparison to dust.
Vacuuming will be the best think for the hair, or shaving the cat...

Seriously, Consumer Reports, while good in many aspects, seriously messes up the tests they perform and thus skews the results regularly.

My recommendation is a Rainbow. Very expensive, but about as perfect as one can get IF you use it.
Water filter vacuum that is a certified purifier and can be left running on low as a purifier.
CR specifically tested them years ago with the test skewed to make them fail.
We used to use the Sharper Image ionic breezes - they were ok but hard to clean the wires effectively. My parents replaced theirs with another similar by the hotel vac company ( can't remember the name).
My Rainbow works better in my experiences.

@kinderdm: Air purifiers with HEPA filters are strongly recommended for folks with allergies and asthma if substances like dust are a problem. I've noticed a difference in my reactions when I'm regularly running my units than when I don't. When I change the filters, I notice that there's lots of dust trapped in them, FWIW.

Air purifiers won't capture "pet hair" because it's too large to be captured by a filter. However, they can capture pet dander, which is usually shed with fur and can be allergenic to people who aren't allergic to the pet itself.

In terms of pet fur itself: solutions depend on what's happening in your house and bothering your wife about the fur, but I highly recommend the Dyson DC35, which appears on woot frequently. It's super lightweight and it's easy to change the attachments to use it on furniture, bedding, etc. It's so light that I use it almost every day; I'd never drag out a full-size one to use that frequently!

I generally don't see any purpose for air purifiers and agree that they do nothing, they fall into the same consumer category as magnetic bracelets.

Ignoring that most of the them don't even filter air, you don't want air filtered in the first place it increases you and your childrens likelihood of developing allergies and of allergies worsening due to lack of exposure. If you want to help your allergies go outside, play in the dirt, climb a tree, the vast majority of our immune system developed after infancy is developed from microbes in dirt and dna transfer from plants.

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